Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Thanks Disney.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oyGGwjPbLw&feature=fvsr

Talking Points 10

Shor says that kids need to be able to connect what they are learning about to thier own lives. If they arent able to make connections, how are they ever going to be able to put it into ways that they truley understand it? The traditional sense of the classroom isnt working anymore and teachers need to find new ways to teach kids. Lectures arent the way kids learn anymore. They need to be able to interact and get up and move around the classroom. They need to be able to talk to eachother and do projects that show a higher understanding. Teaching eachother is a good example of this. If the kids are able to turn around to the child and teach them what they know 1. they understand it more and 2 the other child will gain a new perspective as to what is happening in the classroom.

I thnk this article related to my PP because if kids find another way to learn then they have a better chance in succeding in school and actually retaining the info.

Talking points 9 (Promising Practices)

The morning started off really slow and signing in was hectic. When we branched out into our groups however i was excited.I was in the schooling beyond the classroom walls group. The first section was about the WHERE, WHAT and WHO of educating outside the classroom.
Where: any place that is not in the traditional formal classroom.
What: any education that takes place in a time that is outside of the typical school day.
Who: people in the community who focus on the youth. For example boyscouts and the S>T>E>M groups.
We also talked about a concept called "blending practices" where instead of calling it after SCHOOL, we call it the after zone where kids do activities that enrich what they learn during the day and take it into their hands and do activities that put it into action.

The second session of the workshop was about the group FOODIES. They blend math and language arts by teaching kids how to cook by reading recipies and creating meals. The focus on family dinners and doing it as a group. They also have a wide range of cultures that they cover. WHen they start a new section lets say Italian, they focus on music food an ethinicity of the dishes that they are making.

They also deal with a diverse population and a variety of kids with IEP's and 504 plans with behavioral issues and multiple inteligence levels.  Their idea of social learning is something that they encourage and focus on.
 I felt in the time after the presentation when it was open for discussion and questions it turned into a complaining session for those who gave the presentation. They just focused on the negative aspects instead of trying to figure out a way to solve the issues at hand. The group PASA that came to speak i thought had some of the best ideas and was the most realistic about the fact that it was going to take time for the changes to occur.

I thought the break in between the sessions and the teen empowerment was way too long. We lost interet in what we were doing and sat there eating and socializing. I also did not really understand the teen empowerment presentation either.

I thought they had good ideas and cool methods but i felt as though unless you were on the stage that it was pointless for you to be there. They didnt really focus on the group as whole except for the beggining of the presentation where they introduced themselves.

Overall, it was an okay day. I think it was something was deff. dragged on but it did have some good aspects and planted some great ideas for how I want to run my classroom.

Talking points 8

I feel as though this article talks much about the separation in this country, Our classes, our genders, our races and even our edications are separated. I most deff. agree with the fact that there is a need for education to be a groupe process. Expecially for me because my learning styles in interpersonal. I accell in an enviorment where i can talk to other and bounce thoughts and ideas off other students.

A perfect example for this is our class. We all have something to say and we are able to correct eachother and internalize what we are saying and put all of our content in a "folder" in our brains. WIth out this it is simply memorization of facts that are spit out onto a piece of paper to see if we knowwhat we are talking about. in  the long run internalizing the info will make us be ahead of others who can't process info that way.

Talking points 7

In my service learning classroom, I've noticed that more times than not, the teacher takes the answers of girls before the boys. They are also lined up in passing time with boys in one line and girls in another. I still wonder as to why.

The boys have the greatest likely hood just to throw out an answer and hope its right. The girls sit and wait with their hands up for the teacher to call on them. This teaches them that they have to be patient and that the boys can do whatever they want. Again like Kozol, gender plays a huge role in our society so separating the genders even at the young age in kindergaten teaches them right off the bat that girls and boys are different and that the girls will wait and boys can do whatever and they still will not be punished.

Talking points 5

They argue here that service learning enrich the learning of the students while serving people in society who need help. I think the ideas of  going into the community and extending education beyond the classroom walls is something that we struggle with as a country. We have started to focus so much on the idiviual that we have lost touch with what is truely important.

I think that if i had gotten out of the classroom more I would have been able to draw better connections more and really interanlized the information being taught to me. For example, this semester doin the actual Service Learning project was great, I got to see everything we learn in class unfold right infront of my eyes and was able to figure out how to deal with those situations.

Talking points 4

This article reminded me of Delpit. The way she talks about kids being fed this image of what they should do and how they should act based on gender is something that I feel all kids go through but I've never really stopped to think about what we can do to change that. I on the other hand did not act like a typical girl when I was little I was the girl who wanted to play football with the boys instead of play with the easy bake oven my mom got me.

With children's book the way they are and the media we expose them to it is a miracle if children are able to decide for themselves how they want to be viewed and how they want to act. Why do boys have to play in dirt and be rough? And why do girls have to play with dolls and learn how to cook? what if we threw that all away?
Would our society crash and burn?

Talking points 1

White Priviledge is something that our country will always suffer from. It is where we came from and what we have done for hundreds of years. Even in the colonial times the whiter and more pale the color of your skin was translated into how wealthy you were. Not being tanned means you did not perform labor outside implying you do not do hard work signifying status.

The author here tells us that the system keeps people in place and not to challenege the rules and codes of power that Delpit teaches us. If we do not challenege those concepts our world will never develop and will only et worse as time goes on.